


All I Want Is To Be Free

by lululawrence



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, American AU, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Kinda, M/M, Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, Oh, Student Harry, Student Louis, chiasmus, i honestly don't know how else to tag this, so i hope this works
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 00:40:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12243774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lululawrence/pseuds/lululawrence
Summary: “Uh, you saw photos? Of me wearing the shirt?”The guy nodded eagerly while he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Yeah! I took a picture of the photo I saw so I could remember to look it up. Hold on.”The guy scrolled through his phone and made a happy sound when he found it. “Here!”Louis grabbed his phone to look at the picture. Yep. That confirmed it. He was going crazy.The photo he was looking at was definitely one of him wearing his beloved shirt, but there was a taller man standing beside him, looking at him and laughing as Louis had his hand resting possessively on the guy’s hip. Louis had absolutely no recollection of this ever happening.Or the one where Louis keeps finding photos around campus of him with a man he's never met before, and the only logical explanation must be he's going crazy.





	All I Want Is To Be Free

**Author's Note:**

> Hiiiii! I'm actually really nervous to be one of two fics kicking off Reverse Bang, but here we are! I worked for quite a bit on this fic and am so happy with how it turned out, so I hope all of you enjoy it too. Massive thanks to the mods, first off, as well as my cheerleader [Tin](http://silentlarryshipper.tumblr.com) and the Writing Dead chat who helped me keep going with this as well as to my amazing beta, [Molly](http://becomeawendybird.tumblr.com). Without them this fic wouldn't be here!
> 
> But you know who _actually_ was the amazing person who came up with the super incredible art and fantastic prompt that I knew I had to have as soon as I read it? That would be [Laura](http://harrehleh.tumblr.com). Biggest thanks to her for trusting me with her art and prompt! I had a BLAST helping it come to life through words. You can find links to the gorgeous art within the fic in the end notes :)
> 
> With all of this having been said, this fic is structured a little differently than you may have seen before and it's because I structured it as a chiasmus. For those of you who aren't super nerds like me, that basically means that the fic builds up to a certain point, and then works it's way back again, so it almost mirrors itself. The way that presents itself here is it goes in chronological order until the climax and then it goes back to reverse chronological order. I promise it isn't as confusing to read as it sounds here, but I just wanted you to be prepared for that when it comes.
> 
> All of this being said, this fic is a work of FICtion! Please do not share it with anyone in any way affiliated with the boys, etc. The title comes from the song the classic U Drive Me Crazy by *N SYNC lol if you aren't familiar, there's an excellent music video for it from around 1999 so check it out, even if it isn't really related to the fic. 
> 
> And with that...I'll let you read! haha I hope you enjoy it :D

Louis might just be going crazy.

He’d pulled a required all nighter in order to finish writing a History essay and to study for a massive exam in the same class that, combined, would end up counting for forty percent of his grade. He was used to occasional all nighters, that wasn’t usually an issue, but between a midterm for his Russian Lit class and working the closing shift for the restaurant on Tuesday night (It _was_ Tuesday night that happened right? Today was Thursday, he was pretty sure, so that meant yesterday was Wednesday and his closing shift was Tuesday. Okay. Days of the week. Totally on top of this.), he’d only gotten approximately two hours of sleep in the past 72 hours. That was definitely not enough.

“Fuck,” Louis muttered under his breath as he stumbled over the uneven part of the sidewalk that he never usually had issues with. He turned his head to the right because he could have sworn he heard someone say his name, but no one was even there.

And now he was right back to thinking he was going crazy.

Louis dragged his feet and dreamed about his bed, trying his best to keep his eyes open and focused on the sidewalk so he didn’t stumble over an inanimate object again. Fuck midterms.

Louis scanned his ID into the door and the loud click of the locks turning preceded the buzzing sound telling him he could enter. Damn, that buzzer was louder than he remembered it being...but then again, that was probably just the sleep deprivation.

Louis walked to the foot of the stairs and just stared at them. They were the usual set of dorm stairs, just plain concrete with some metal thrown in for a semblance of structure. Usually he didn’t mind them because he was busy listening to his music or thinking about his plans for the day, but right now? Right now he couldn’t imagine having the energy to get his legs to climb three flights of the shitty things. That last espresso had worn off an hour ago, and nothing was going to help Louis at this point other than sleep.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck,” Louis said again, leaning his head against the handrail. He allowed himself to wallow and whine for a minute, and then he pulled himself up. He took a deep breath and was just about to start the ascent when he saw a piece of paper on the fourth step.

It wasn’t just any paper though. It was a smiling photo of Louis. Louis blinked and picked it up and...what the hell? Louis’ eyes were kind of swimming in and out of focus, but even so, he was fairly certain he’d never seen this photo before and he definitely hadn’t seen the other guy in the picture with him, which was slightly awkward due to the fact that _the guy was kissing Louis’ cheek._

__

In photo Louis’ defense, he had every right to be smiling as big as he was. The dude kissing him was hot. The man had long curly hair and eyes that shone bright with knowing confidence as he stared down the camera. Louis would be smiling pretty damn big if those lush lips were kissing him right at that moment too.

Louis sighed and pocketed the photo. He was far too tired to deal with this. For all he knew, he had passed out on the sidewalk after tripping on that uneven portion and this was all a dream. Louis gripped the handrail and groaned as he began the trek to his third floor apartment, thinking of nothing other than his pillow and six hours of uninterrupted sleep.

 

*~~***~~*

 

Louis was definitely going crazy.

It was Thursday again. What the fuck was wrong with Thursdays? He’d finally gotten his history exam back and he’d still gotten a C- on it. Why? Because the professor said his writing style “was more like an English Major than a History Major”. Well, maybe that’s because Louis _was_ an English Major. And what the hell did that have to do with anything? As long as he had the facts correct and made his points in a convincing manner then who the hell cared whether he wrote it in a way that was mentally stimulating? Just because the professor preferred papers that were dry and boring as fuck didn’t mean Louis had to bow to that sub par shit.

Except apparently it did if he didn’t want his GPA to go completely tank. He was going to have to work his ass off for the rest of the semester if he wanted to come out of this class with a grade higher than a B. Fuck it all.

That wasn’t why he was going crazy though. That was just why he was in a piss poor mood. The reason he was going crazy was the guy standing in front of him. He’d never met the dude before, Louis _swore_ he had never seen him in his entire life, but the guy had stopped him a minute ago.

“Hey dude! I saw some of your photos and I was just wondering where you found that sick _The Future Is Now_ shirt. It’s so rad, but I searched for it and couldn’t find it anywhere!”

Louis studied him and squinted, trying to figure out who the hell this guy was and how he’d seen that shirt. Louis had only gotten it right before school started up again. He’d been getting some custom shirts for Lottie’s birthday and got one for himself since there was a sale running. He’d only worn it once though, and it was to a party at a friend’s house. Well, unless you counted walking around his apartment floor in his boxers with that shirt. It was so soft, he usually just used it as a pajama top instead of something he wore to class or clubbing. How did this guy know about it?

“Uh, you saw photos? Of me wearing the shirt?”

The guy nodded eagerly while he pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Yeah! I took a picture of the photo I saw so I could remember to look it up. Hold on.”

The guy scrolled through his phone and made a happy sound when he found it. “Here!”

Louis grabbed his phone to look at the picture. Yep. That confirmed it. He was going crazy.

The photo he was looking at was definitely one of him wearing his beloved shirt, but there was a taller man standing beside him, looking at him and laughing as Louis had his hand resting possessively on the guy’s hip. Louis had absolutely no recollection of this ever happening.

“So yeah, where’d you get the shirt?” the guy asked, holding his hand out for his phone. He was a bit less enthusiastic now, looking at Louis like he wasn’t sure what Louis was going to do. It was a valid fear. Louis also didn’t know what he was going to do.

“That was one I did custom, bro. Just made it myself on a website. You’ll probably have to do the same, but feel free.”

The guy thanked him before running off across the oval and Louis finished his walk back to his apartment in a daze. See, the guy in the photo looked so familiar. Louis felt like he’d seen him before, or seen a photo of him before? But he was one hundred percent sure he’d never met him. Louis would remember meeting a guy that hot and…

Shit. That other photo Louis had found last Thursday. What had he done with that?

Louis ran up the stairs of his apartment building and rushed to his room. He was fairly sure he had shoved it into a pocket. It might be in his bookbag or in whatever hoodie he’d worn that day. Maybe his jeans? Who the hell knows. He hadn’t done laundry since then, though, so it should still be wherever he left it.

Louis hastily unlocked his apartment door and dropped his bag on his bed. Best chance was probably his jacket pocket, so he started searching through every jacket he remembered wearing lately, making a pile of clothes he’d already searched by Niall’s side of the room. He would clean it up before the guy got back from class and had a fit about how Louis was ruining his “happy space”.

Louis had gone through most of his hoodies and jackets before he found his other pair of black skinny jeans. He’d gotten pizza sauce on them last Thursday when he’d finally woken up after catching up on sleep and hadn’t been able to wear them again since. Louis shoved his hand into the back pocket and felt the edges of a stiff paper with a glossy finish. Finally.

Louis pulled it out, and looked at it again. Oh God, how had he forgotten about this? He had been sleep deprived, but the photo was honestly stunning. It looked like it had been taken in front of his apartment building. The guy was the same as the one in the other photo and Louis was no closer to knowing who the hell he was.

What was probably even more concerning, though, was that Louis had no recollection of either photo being taken. His mind began to race with possibilities.

 _Was_ he going crazy? Was it multiple personalities where someone had no recollection of what happened when they were someone else? What if he had that and this version of himself just blacked out from time to time and another one of his personalities thought he was dating this guy? That didn’t make any sense, though. If that were the case, wouldn’t there be a contact or a messaging thread in his phone with someone he didn’t know?

Holy shit. Maybe there was and Louis just never realized because he hadn’t bothered to look for it. Louis lunged over to his backpack to grab his phone from the side pocket and unlocked it. After scrolling back to message threads that hadn’t been opened in months he went to his call log and didn’t find anything odd there either.

Okay. So that might not be it, but what other possibilities were there? Did Louis have an evil twin? A secret double life that he led when he thought he was sleeping? What if he had a doppelganger walking around campus? Someone who looked exactly like him?

Louis’ mind was swirling with possibilities and even he was able to recognize that most of them were in no way _actually_ viable options...but what if?

Louis was paranoid for the next several days, and was constantly looking around for either his doppelganger or the man in the photographs. What if he really had been attending school with a lookalike this entire time and had no idea? Louis had apparently been doing a poor job of looking around covertly though, because Liam had asked him several times about what he was looking for and Niall had started to call him out as well.

“Dude. What are you doing? You’ve been acting weird as fuck lately.”

Louis shot Niall a glare. “Thanks for that. I thought you always thought I acted weird.”

Liam snorted at that and said, “You do,” under his breath making Louis kick his shin. “Ouch! Damn, Lou! You always do that kind of shit for the smallest things.”

“You do act weird,” Niall said, taking another sip of his beer before looking back at his notes for the astronomy course they were taking together to get one of their science requirements out of the way. “But you’ve been acting like someone is following you and you’re expecting to be kidnapped or something. This is a different kind of weird. Not the fun and over the top kind, just...weird weird.”

Louis sighed. “I’ll explain later. Not right now. Right now we need to focus on the various gasses that can be found in the different atmospheres of the planets in our solar system, okay?”

Louis forced himself to focus for another hour. That was all he could manage, so he closed his books and packed up. “You coming back, Ni? Or staying a little later?”

Niall blinked up at Louis. “I’ve gotta stay a little longer. If I come back to the room I’ll never get anything done, I’ll just start watching the next season of _How It’s Made_ instead.”

“Okay, dude. I’ll see you later. Have a good night, Li.”

Liam waved as he stayed hunched over his notes. Louis hefted his bookbag onto his shoulders and headed out. They were only around the corner from their apartment building, so he didn’t have far to go. Louis began to reassess how ridiculous he’d been about looking for his twin around campus.

There had to be some other more reasonable explanation than that, right? Louis was wracking his brain trying to come up with one, when he looked up and saw the dude from the photos. His hair was pulled up in a bun this time, instead of hanging down to his shoulders like it had been in the photos, but Louis definitely recognized his face and lips from the photo Louis had.

Looking around in panic, Louis dashed behind the building to his left to make sure he was out of sight. He stood there, leaning his side against the wall, as he tried to figure out what to do next. God, he was such an idiot. Why did he hide? What was he afraid of? That the guy would come up and start talking to him like he knew Louis or possibly even kiss him? Louis rolled his eyes at himself. He was being ridiculous. He needed to just go out and walk past the guy like he would have before he ever saw the pictures, no big deal.

Louis straightened his shoulders, gripped his backpack straps, and then walked as casually as he could out from behind the building and back to the sidewalk that led to his apartment. As he got closer to the beautiful man, Louis realized he wasn’t alone. There was a tall man with dark hair that accompanied him and talked quite a bit, while Louis’ mystery man smiled.

A sour feeling began to simmer in his stomach, especially when Louis’ guy glanced forward to look where he was going and he saw Louis. He flashed Louis a small smile before looking back at his friend and laughing. Shit. His laugh was deep and lovely. The feeling it left Louis with was like taking freshly washed towels out of the dryer and wrapping himself in them. Louis needed to have that all the time.

Oh God, Louis was acting weird again. Weird weird. He didn’t know the guy, had no idea what his name even was, and Louis was calling him _his guy_ and thinking things like he wanted to hear his laugh every day. This was not okay. This was the first time Louis had actually seen him! In real life anyway. It was good to know the guy existed, but...wait.

The guy just gave him a small smile and kept walking. What did that mean? Louis was on autopilot as he got into the building and into his room. The photos indicated one of them at least should be familiar with the other, but the guy acted as if he’d never met Louis before either. So how the hell were the pictures in existence then? And why had Louis been more concerned with finding his doppelganger than finding the other subject in the photos?

Louis needed to sleep so he was ready for his early astronomy exam and the double shift he had picked up tomorrow. Then he’d talk it all out with Niall and figure out what the hell was going on.

 

*~~***~~*

 

A week later and Louis still hadn’t talked it out with Niall and his theories were really starting to spiral out of control. There was absolutely no way: A) Louis had an evil twin, B) this curly headed man who just might be out to kill Louis also had an evil twin, and C) both of their evil twins were out cavorting together taking sappy photos. Right? Of _course_ they weren’t. That was ridiculous. It was far more likely Louis sleepwalked every night and met a lookalike of the handsome man he’d seen last week and taken the photos then.

Louis was on his bed, pretending to write a paper for his Societal Norms in World Folklore course, when Niall came into their room.

“Dude. Are you seeing someone? You’d definitely tell me if you were seeing someone, right?”

Louis looked up at Niall, confused. “Of course I’d tell you,” he said slowly. “What the hell are you talking about? I’m definitely not dating anyone.”

Niall gave an angry sigh and threw something at Louis. It fluttered to the floor between their beds, and Louis just arched a brow at Niall.

“Really?” Louis said, exasperated. “You’re gonna act like that about whatever this is?”

“Yep,” Niall said, snappish. He turned around and began throwing his bookbag around and kicking his shoes towards the wall like he was throwing an actual temper tantrum. The man was twenty. He should definitely be beyond this.

Louis slid the laptop (that had gone into sleep mode while he was daydreaming) off of his lap and leaned off his bed. He nearly toppled over trying to grab whatever Niall had thrown, but was able to catch himself and push back up. As soon as Louis flipped the card over, he froze.

“The fuck…” Louis whispered as he studied the photo. It was another with the same mystery man as before, but this time the guy was in a squat holding a fancy camera to his face, and Louis was beside him, leaning into him and he couldn’t tell if he was just leaning his chin on his shoulder or if he was actually smelling his hair.

“How long have you been seeing Harry?” Niall demanded. “You look pretty damn cuddly, considering we’ve known each other for over two years and I haven’t ever seen you dating someone seriously. I thought you’d tell me something like this. Guess I was wrong.”

Niall was still crashing around his side of the room, angrily and noisily rearranging things he’d kept in perfect order from the moment they’d moved in a few months ago.

“His name is Harry?” Louis blurted out, because apparently that was the only thing he’d been able to latch onto. “Harry,” he whispered as he went back to studying the photo.

The name suited him. It wasn’t too funky, but not incredibly popular these days. Well. Louis chuckled. It was if you were British maybe, but here in the US it wasn’t really. Maybe Harry was British. Louis imagined that deep laugh he’d heard last week and imagined the man with a posh, fast-talking British accent. God, wouldn’t that be divine?

“You _seriously_ have photos like this of the two of you together and you don’t even know his name?!” Niall cried, arms flailing in the air. “Both you _and_ Harry deserve better than this!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Louis said. “And people call _me_ a drama queen.”

“I am not usually this dramatic, Louis!” Niall yelled. His face was now full blown red, and Louis didn’t even know why he was so worked up over this. “I am just very upset right now, and you aren’t answering a single one of my questions! I thought our friendship was tight, but it looks like you’ve been keeping secrets from me and I fucking trusted you!”

Niall was heaving in breaths and Louis realized he was serious. He was actually worked up about this, and Louis really needed to do damage control and fast.

Louis rolled off his bed and stood up so he could wrap Niall in a hug. “Ni, bro. I’m not lying to you and I’m not keeping secrets from you. I legitimately have no idea who Harry is. I saw him, or I think it was him, just last week for the very first time and we just passed on the street. He didn’t seem to know who I am either, so I truly don’t know where these photos are coming from or how they were taken. It all seems pretty impossible.”

Niall wrapped his arms tightly around Louis and dipped his head to Louis’ shoulder. Louis rubbed his back and gently rocked them side to side until Niall’s breathing was back under control.

“Sorry,” Niall softly said into Louis’ shoulder. “You’re just my very best friend and I don’t handle lies and secrets very well when I feel like they’re important to those I care about.”

Louis kept the hug tight as he said, “It’s okay. But for real, I do need to talk to you about this, because I’m going out of my damn mind.”

They finally parted and Niall began fussing with things on his side of the room again, getting them back to where they had been before he had his little meltdown.

“Okay. Please tell me what’s going on with this photo. I don’t really understand. You’ve never met Harry?”

Louis went to his dresser drawer where he’d been keeping the other photo he’d found and handed it to Niall.

“Where’d you find yours? I found this one on the stairs here a few weeks ago. I thought I was losing my mind or I had a long lost twin or something.”

Niall chuckled. “I swear, Tommo. Only you would come up with those options first.”

Louis scoffed and kicked his leg out at Niall as he walked past his bed. “Rude! I knew they didn’t make much sense, but I honestly couldn’t think of any other options!”

Niall finally let out his usual infectious and overloud laugh, and it was then that Louis finally felt himself relax again. If Niall was laughing like that, then they really were okay.

“So why don’t we just ask him?” Niall asked. He sat down on his bed, facing Louis, and he looked absolutely serious.

Louis’ eyes went wide. “And what the hell am I supposed to say to him? ‘Hi, excuse me. I’m Louis Tomlinson and I keep finding random photos that I don’t have any recollection of being taken, plus I’m not quite certain we’ve actually met before, but you’re kind of in them too. Have any information about this?’”

“I mean,” Niall said, smiling, “there are probably ways to say it that are a bit easier to understand, but that’s the basic gist of it, yeah.”

Louis shook his head. His heart was beating out of his chest just thinking about that coversation. “No way. There’s zero chance of me doing that.”

Niall sighed like he was the one being put upon. Louis would love to see Niall and how he’d react in a similar situation.

“What other choices do you have?”

“I don’t know!” Louis squeaked out. His voice had slowly gotten higher and higher and finally was starting to crack from the stress. He needed to calm the fuck down. “I’ve been trying to figure things out for the past few weeks and I haven’t come up with anything yet!”

Niall stood up and patted Louis on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Tommo. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

 

*~~***~~*

 

Apparently when Niall said _get to the bottom of this,_ he meant he’d take things into his own hands. Louis wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.

Maybe that was an understatement.

Louis was standing frozen with a mixture of fear and anger as he stared at Harry, who was now inside of his room thanks to his fucking best friend.

Harry cleared his throat and nervously shuffled his feet. “So, uhm. Hi? I’m Harry. Styles.”

Harry was now blushing, but Louis couldn’t really process that. He was too busy taking in Harry’s hair that was up in a bun and how it accentuated his perfectly shaped cheekbones and holy _shit_ his jawline that Louis really wanted to bite down on just a little bit. A tiny bit. Only enough to make a mark that told everyone that Harry was taken.

Okay, Louis really needed to calm down. But how was that possible when the most beautiful and physically perfect man Louis had ever come into contact with was standing in his room wearing a fucking oversized pink polka dot button up shirt with the tightest black jeans and tan chelsea boots? It was like he’d been sent here specifically to fuck with Louis. Actually, he kind of had. Niall was the reason he was here, so who the fuck knew what was going on.

Louis finally realized he needed to respond to Harry before Harry thought he was even more of a creep.

“Oh shit. Right. Hi,” Louis said, a bit breathless, before sticking his hand out awkwardly for a handshake. A handshake? What the fuck was he thinking? “I’m Louis Tomlinson. Nice to...officially meet you?”

Harry laughed a bit, but put his hand in Louis’, and it was large, and dry, and warm, and Louis kind of wanted to feel it all over his body. But that was obviously a completely inappropriate thought to be having right now when the man who may have the answers to all of Louis’ questions was standing right in front of him.

Niall had fucked off as soon as he’d let Harry into their room, so Louis looked around at their room before saying, “You know what? I feel like this could be at least slightly less awkward if we went somewhere else to talk about this. Wanna head to Kafe Kerouac?”

Harry looked around and gave a soft smile. “Yeah, that would...uhm. That would be okay.”

The walk to the coffee shop was quiet, the two of them not so subtly sneaking looks at each other. Louis had caught Harry studying him several times, but it couldn’t really make him feel any more awkward than he already did. The situation was pretty fucked up already, he wasn’t sure what more he could do to make it worse.

They settled in at a couple of overstuffed chairs in the corner where they could have a fairly private conversation.

“So, did Niall give you any sort of information, or did he just kind of drag you to our room and then leave without explaining anything?” Louis was fairly certain it could have gone either way, so it was unfortunate, but asking was easiest to know what he was working with.

Harry’s cheeks flamed even brighter pink at that, which was...interesting. Did he know something? Why else would he be blushing? Fuck. Was Louis actually going insane and Harry was the one who could commit him?

“Uh, he explained something about you finding photos of the two of us together?”

Louis nodded. “Yeah, and I don’t want to alarm you or anything, but we seemed pretty cozy in them, ya know? Like, it almost convinced _me_ we were dating.”

Harry’s eyes went a bit wider and then he wasn’t making eye contact with Louis anymore. Niall seemed to pretty easily believe that Louis could be dating him, but was Harry actually straight? Had they somehow gotten their wires crossed, and Harry was embarrassed and confused by the situation even more than Louis because he didn’t swing that way?

“I just...I don’t really have a very good excuse for any of this, but I do want you to know that I never expected it to ever get this far,” Harry said, and...what?

Louis blinked and waited for him to say more, but Harry just stared at him, eyes wide and pleading. Louis wished he knew what Harry wanted from him so he could give it. With his gorgeous green eyes opened wide like that, Louis was week and didn’t really have any other option than to give him whatever he wanted.

“Okay,” Louis finally drew out, hoping that was what Harry was waiting for. Louis really just wanted him to keep talking.

“So...those are my photos. But they aren’t really photos, they’re photoshopped. We sometimes call them manips cause they’ve been manipulated? And I guess I did take them from actual photos, but they themselves never actually happened. If that makes sense.”

Louis stared at Harry and tried to wrap his head around what he’d just spit out so quickly that Louis’ mind was reeling. “So...the photos Niall and I found and the one the random dude on campus showed me on his phone...those were all photoshopped by you?”

Harry looked relieved for some reason Louis couldn’t fathom as he nodded and said, “Yes. Exactly.”

“Okay, so...I guess what I’m mostly wondering right now is _why?_ Like...yeah. That’s pretty much it. A big, all encompassing why.”

“Yeah, so, I’ve been prepping an answer for that question all day and I’m still not sure my answer is going to make any sense or make me not come off as a creep, but here goes.”

Louis watched as Harry took a deep breath and then leaned forward, as if his earnestness would help convince Louis he wasn’t insane.

“So I’m a graphic arts major, right? And that means I have to work with photoshop a lot, and we had a big project right at the beginning of the year and I was so stressed and uninspired that I decided I needed to take a break and go through the photos I’d taken so far since I also dabble in photography.”

Harry took a quick sip of his iced macchiato before continuing. “I was scrolling through these photos and I found one that I’d taken of the albino squirrel on campus-”

“Fucking hate that squirrel,” Louis said with a shiver. “Freaks me out every time I see it.”

Harry laughed before saying, “Me too. But anyway, I’d taken a picture of it, right? But when I zoomed in I found that you were perfectly caught in the background. You were sitting beside someone who was sunbathing or something, and the way you were leaned over, it looked like you were leaning in to give an imaginary person a kiss, so I wanted to test and see if I could make it work.” Here Harry made a face and pointed at himself before saying, “Cause that’s how a graphic design nerd’s brain works, right? If I’m not doing anything of any worth with my project, let’s at least mess with photoshop so I can pretend I am honing my skills.”

Louis laughed, and Harry smiled back, his eyes brighter than they had been since they met earlier.

“So, anyway. I found a photo of me from over the summer where I was taking a photo, right? And it looked like the positioning and ratios were similar, so I went ahead and tried to put them together, and it worked perfectly. I was so proud of myself because it looked seamless, so I printed it out to show a friend before I even thought twice about it.”

Here Harry looked a bit uncomfortable. “Uhm. If that was where it had stopped, I wouldn’t feel so bad, but as you know there were more?”

Louis nodded. “Yeah, kinda curious why you kept going.” Louis smirked when Harry blushed again. He was so adorable when he did that, even if his story was a bit...odd.

Harry rolled his eyes before he continued. “Well, you’re kinda gorgeous?” Harry said, making it sound like a question with how he raised his tone at the end, but Louis couldn’t help but feel his own cheeks flame a little at that. “That’s not a question, by the way. You are. Gorgeous. Anyway, I was hoping I’d run into you on campus so I could come up with a reason to talk to you, but I never did. Then, I kept finding you in the background of photos I took, or my friends took, with my camera. So...since I still hadn’t run into you, I kept finding ways to manip what I had and try different techniques, almost as a way of testing new skills I’d learned in class.”

Louis furrowed his brow. “And you kept printing them out?”

Harry shook his head. “No! No. I only did that one other time. And of course I lost both the photos I printed, which was part of why I decided not to do that anymore.”

Louis was almost more confused now than he had been at the beginning of this whole thing. “Wait, so how did that random dude have one of the photos on his phone of my shirt?”

Harry’s eyes almost bulged out of his head. “Fuck. Who was it? What did he look like?”

“I dunno, uh…” Louis thought back to the guy who had stopped him on campus all those weeks ago now. “He was probably about my height, brown hair?”

Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath before asking, “Did he have really ruddy cheeks and the most disgusting orange shoes you’ve ever seen?”

As soon as Harry asked, it was like a light went off in Louis’ mind. “Yes! Who was he?”

Harry pinched his nose. “My roommate, Jonny. Fuck, he was never supposed to see those. He must have seen one when I was working on it or something. I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever. I’m just glad I know now.” Louis’ mind continued processing all the information he’d gotten. It was...interesting. For sure. But one main question kept coming up while he continued to try to understand it all. “Harry, I still need to know. Why did you keep trying these new skills out on photos of me and photos of you?”

“I uh, I mean, you just…” Harry stumbled over his words a bit before stopping, and shaking his head. “I mean, I already basically said. You’re gorgeous, right? If I didn’t have a chance of ever actually meeting you and trying to get something to happen, I could pretend through fake photos, right?” He rolled his eyes again before saying, “God, I swear I’m not as desperate or stalkerish as that makes me sound. I do have friends and a life, I just...yeah. Anyway.”

Louis laughed. “Okay, listen. I have to take some time to actually try to understand everything you’ve told me. Thank you for being so honest and answering my questions. Can I have your number? I will probably wanna talk more, but I just...need to…” Louis waved his hands around to indicate the mess his mind was right now. “Ya know?”

Harry nodded quickly. “Yeah, for sure. I can type my number in, if you want? You can text me when you’re ready.”

Louis nodded and handed over his phone. This was...something, that’s for sure. He would definitely be talking this out with Niall and trying to figure out if Harry was crazy underneath his adorable and soft facade or if he was just a quirky guy who in a random grouping of circumstances had come to do something that, from anyone else, would cause Louis to be a bit more concerned for his safety.

Harry handed the phone back and Louis stood, returning it to his pocket. “Thanks, Harry. I’ll talk to you soon, okay?”

Harry nodded and Louis left Kafe Kerouac. Well. At least _Louis_ wasn’t crazy.

 

*~~***~~*

 

Harry paced his room. It had been three days since he’d met with Louis and he was itching to do another manip, but he was now unsure if, morally, it was okay. Technically he had only been using his own photos the entire time. Technically he had never meant to capture Louis in his photos...except once.

Harry had been doing a focus on the fall leaves as a study in color saturation and what exposure was best in order to make the editing process as smooth as possible. It wasn’t his fault that some of the best trees on campus were by Mirror Lake and that Louis had been there, sitting on a bench with his head thrown back, soaking in the rare fall sunshine. It had been too perfect to miss. The way the sunbeams and the fall colors surrounding him made it look like they were only there for Louis. His obviously relaxed position made it so all Harry really had to do was make sure it was framed well and it was perfection. Sure, later he edited himself into the photo, but he didn’t think anyone would ever know.

Except now Louis _did_ know. And Louis wasn’t sure what he thought about it, which was fair.

Harry took a deep breath and scrubbed his face with his hands. He’d hoped he would hear from Louis by now, especially since Louis had said he might have more questions for him, but it had been radio silence.

In the meantime, Harry supposed he could just do a different manip. One with people he actually knew. God, Harry was an idiot.

Harry sat down at his laptop, and had just chosen a photo of Nick that he was going to try to merge with a stock photo online when his phone buzzed.

_Unknown Number: Hey Harry, it’s Louis. Mind if I come over? Niall said you’re just a floor above us._

Oh shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. Harry had to pull himself together and fast. Harry unlocked his phone and typed in a short message.

_Course. Room 407. H_

Harry glanced around the room and found it to be as spotless as it usually was. Everyone was usually surprised by the state of their room considering it was inhabited by two college boys, but he and Jonny had always been pretty neat and organized kids and it translated well to their dorm.

Harry had just finished making sure there wasn’t anything embarrassing out when a knock sounded, and he quickly went to open the door.

“Hey, Louis. Come on in.”

Fuck. Louis looked even better than he had a few days ago. His hair was up in a quiff and he was wearing jeans that made every one of his curves impossible to ignore. Unfortunately, Harry really needed to do exactly that. Because he really needed to _not_ come off as a creep.

“Thanks,” Louis said as he stepped in. His hands were shoved into his pockets somehow, Harry had thought with jeans that tight the pockets were just for aesthetics, but apparently not.

When Louis didn’t say anything else right away, Harry took that as a good sign and sat down, motioning to Louis that he could do the same. They got comfortable on Harry’s bed and sat facing each other.

Louis bit his lip before saying, “Alright, so. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Tell me a bit about yourself.”

What? Harry hated when people said that kind of shit in a normal situation, but this situation wasn’t normal. What was he supposed to say? Harry finally said a quick, “Uhm,” which made Louis laugh.

“Sorry. Dick question. I just...Niall said you’re a cool guy. And you’re obviously talented, but all I’ve seen of your work are the photos you put together of us. Other than that I know nothing about you. So. Where are you from? How old are you? What are you interested in?”

Harry released his legs and instead of holding his knees up to his chest in a closed off position, he decided to relax a bit and sit criss cross like Louis. That was open, right? He needed to be open.

“Well, I’m Harry. I’m from Iowa. I’m twenty and I have an older sister, Gemma, who’s the smartest person I know and is attending MIT.”

“Ooh,” Louis whistled. “And here you got relegated to some run of the mill state school, huh?”

Harry could tell by the smirk on his face that Louis was joking and he liked their university as much as Harry did. All the same, Harry teased right back by saying, “Yeah, but full ride scholarships will make almost any university more appealing.”

Louis’ jaw dropped. “You’re on a full ride? Damn, I am not worthy to be in your presence. I’m only here thanks to a shit ton of grants and student loans.”

Harry blushed and shrugged. “I try not to bring it up too much, but it was ultimately why I decided to come here instead of somewhere closer to home.”

Louis smiled before saying, “Okay, good start. So I’m guessing you know as little about me as I knew about you before just now, right?”

Harry laughed and ran a hand through his hair before remembering it was pulled up in a bun. He hated when he did that. He fiddled with it a bit to make sure nothing crazy was sticking up before he said, “Yeah. Basically I just knew you were ridiculously beautiful.”

Louis bit his lip and messed with a rip in his jeans as a blush rose on his cheeks. Oh. That’s a good sign.

“Alright. So, I’m Louis. I’m twenty-one and I’m actually from a suburb about twenty minutes from here. I’m a dual major in Linguistics and English Pre-Ed, which basically means my English courses focus on the literature necessary for the background I need in order to teach for secondary grades. That way, if I decide to go and get my Masters and teaching license I’ve already got that taken care of and I just need the courses teaching me how to teach others. If that makes sense.”

Harry didn’t say anything; he loved just watching Louis talk. Louis was so animated that you could see his excitement for what he was studying all over his face. It was incredible. His hands began to wave a bit more as he became more involved in talking about his large family and his shitty job he worked on the side of his already overloaded course schedule, and the more Harry sat in his presence and got to know him, the more he knew Louis was a good person. Harry already knew Louis was beautiful beyond belief, but seeing him talk about his family with such affection and about his hard work on his classes and his hopes for his future career? Harry just _knew_ he was in the presence of someone who could change everything for him in the best of ways.

“Okay, sorry. I’ve taken over this conversation completely,” Louis said, blushing and looking down. “I came here to learn more about you and ended up being the one doing most of the talking.”

“No, don’t apologize,” Harry said, shaking his head and reaching his hand out. He was going to touch Louis’ knee, but realized they didn’t know each other well enough for that yet, so he let his hand drop awkwardly. “I am enjoying hearing about you too.”

“Thanks.” They sat and smiled at each other shyly for a minute before Louis tilted his head. “Do you mind...this might be a question you’re uncomfortable with, so if you are, please tell me and we can change to something else. But...I was wondering if I could see some of your work? Like, not just the edits you did of us, but the kinds of things you do for class?”

Harry’s eyes widened. “Oh. Uhm, yeah. That’s fine. Hold on.”

Harry twisted around to grab his laptop off his desk that was just behind his bed. Once he had it in hand, he shuffled around and sat with his back to the wall, leaving space for Louis to come sit beside him.

Harry minimized the browser he had open and brought up the folder of his own photos. “Alright, so I have shit ton of photos here that I took just for different purposes as well as a folder of edits I’ve done and different projects. Anything catching your eye?”

Louis leaned in a bit to read the labels Harry had used, before pointing at a couple. “Clouds? Leaves? Do you seriously have enough of those to warrant they get their own folders?”

“Yes. Yes I do, and there’s a reason for it.” Harry opened the clouds folder. “I believe the clouds are like poetry. They are beautiful, but not everyone sees that, and everyone gets something different out of them. Truly though, look at these.”

Harry slowly tabbed through the photos he’d taken over the past several years of some of his favorite clouds. He was so focused on the photos and remembering the beauty he had witnessed, that he’d forgotten one in there had Louis as a subject. It was in his clouds folder because the clouds reflected in Mirror Lake were framed perfectly by some fall leaves littered on the ground, and Louis in the sunbeams was the only visible source of light. It was one of Harry’s favorites, but he’d never intended for Louis to see it.

“Wait,” Louis grabbed Harry’s hand right as Harry was about to hurriedly click past. “Is that...That’s me.”

Louis’ eyes were searching Harry’s. Harry nodded and cleared his throat. “Yeah.”

Louis looked back at the photo. Softly, almost a whisper, Louis said, “It’s beautiful. Looking at this makes me _feel_ beautiful.”

Harry looked at the man sitting next to him. “You _are_ beautiful. In lots of ways. You should always feel that way.”

Louis met Harry’s eyes again and Harry felt as if he was searching for something. Harry kind of wanted to hide, because he felt like Louis was able to see to his deep, dark insides that held all of his secrets. Whatever Louis actually saw didn’t scare him enough, though, because he said, “Go on a date with me?”

Harry blinked at the invitation. “I haven’t ruined any chance I ever had with those manips I made?”

Louis laughed. “I thought you had, but the more I thought about it and the more Niall talked about you, the more I realized that was one of the best ways I’ve ever had a guy get my attention. I literally couldn’t get you off of my mind, and now that I know a little more about you, I really do want to learn more. So do you want to? Want to keep getting to know each other on a date?”

“God, yes,” Harry said, possibly too eagerly but he didn’t really care at this point.

“Good.” Louis leaned over and left a lingering kiss on Harry’s cheek that made him feel like his heart was going to force its way out of his chest, it was beating so hard. “I should get going. I’ll text you for details, okay?”

Harry nodded, mute, as Louis got off of his bed and walked back to the door. He gave a little wave before letting himself out, and Harry was once again alone.

He was still sitting in a daze when his phone buzzed on his desk. He grabbed it and laughed to himself as soon as he read it.

_Louis Tomlinson: Maybe we can recreate some of those edits you made so they’re real now. ;)_

Harry couldn’t wait.

 

*~~***~~*

 

“What do you _mean_ he’s seen some of my manips, Niall?!” Harry squeaked out. Niall had randomly shown up and woken Harry from his well deserved nap to deliver some of the worst news Harry could imagine.

“I mean, somehow a couple have made their way into his hands, and I’ve seen them, and they look hella good, but he’s thinking he’s gone crazy because he doesn’t remember them happening and I thought you two were secretly dating and bro, that’s messed up. You need to fix this.”

Harry’s hands were in his hair, pulling at it a bit so the pain could tell him this was real and not part of a nightmare. “You’re...fuck. Niall!” Harry whined. “I knew I had lost the couple I’d printed off somehow, but I thought i’d just misplaced them in my desk or something! I didn’t realize they’d come out of my bag much less been found by you or Louis himself!” It was a good thing he’d never printed more than just those two after losing them. Who knows how many Louis would have in his possession at this point if he had.

Niall came over and put his hand on Harry’s shoulder. “Listen. You’re a good dude, okay? You are. But Louis is really flipping out. When you’re ready and able, please just go talk to him about it, okay? Anything is gonna be better than the stupid shit his brain has come up with on it’s own.”

Harry looked at Niall with suspicion. “What kind of shit?”

Niall shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe me if you didn’t know the guy, alright? Just. Talk to him. Sooner rather than later, yeah?”

Harry sighed. “Yeah. I will. Let me just figure out how to do it, alright?”

“Sure. I’ve gotta get to work. Sorry for waking you up, dude.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Have a good shift, Ni.”

Harry hardly registered his door closing he was so out of it. He was fucked. Well and truly fucked. How the hell was he supposed to explain this to anyone, much less _Louis?_

 

*~~***~~*

 

“H, he’s soooo pretty! I can’t wait for you to meet him.”

Harry laughed at Nick. He was such a sucker for a pretty face, but so many of them came with the most lame personalities attached that he was usually bored by the end of the night. Harry was intrigued to see if this would end similarly or not.

“You laugh. I know you don’t believe me, but this one is different.”

Harry held his hands up in surrender. “You’re right, I don’t believe you. What’s this one’s name? Matt? Mike? Mark?”

Nick pushed Harry hard enough he stumbled off the sidewalk in the dark. “Rude! Look how you’re treating me! I have half a mind to not come and meet this perfect specimen!”

“You wouldn’t dare! Harry Edward, you promised you wouldn’t back out this time!” Nick was standing looking offended, hand to his chest, as he watched Harry. “What would you do anyway? Go back home and keep making edits of you with...puppy dogs or rainbows or whatever shit you do?”

Harry rolled his eyes before he kept walking. “Whatever, dickhead. Just get us to the bar and buy me the lager you’ve been promising will change my world, okay?”

Nick wrapped his arm around Harry and continued to talk excitedly, as Harry saw someone dart behind a building ahead of them. That was weird. It was dark, hopefully they’re okay. Campus was pretty safe, but it could still be dangerous.

Harry had just focused back in on Nick’s rant about the latest Taylor Swift single tearing apart yet another man she had supposedly been dating when the figure came back out from behind the building. Harry tried to keep listening to Nick, but from the side of his vision he could see as they walked right into a pool of light from a streetlamp they were passing and Harry saw with a bit of a shock to his system that it was Louis.

Shit, he was even more beautiful under the yellow lights of the streetlamps. Was that possible? Every time Harry saw him he somehow became more gorgeous. That was not fair. Harry gave him a soft smile as they passed each other before turning his attention back to Nick and trying to focus on his Taylor inspired rant.

Fucking hell, one look and shared smile with Louis and Harry was sweating in his jacket despite the cold weather. It was a good thing this didn’t happen often, or he’d have to worry about his health. Maybe Harry should be jogging more or lifting weights at the very least. He definitely needed something because he felt like he was experiencing a heart attack after a brief encounter with the man.

Harry turned to look behind him, and saw Louis turn off the sidewalk towards their apartment building.

“What are you looking at?” Nick asked, turning around to see what might have caught Harry’s attention.

“Nothing,” Harry said. “So who do you think this particular song is supposedly written for?”

With Nick focused back on his rant, Harry was left alone to his daydreams of the beautiful man who was never too far from his thoughts these days.

 

*~~***~~*

 

Harry knew he shouldn’t. He was close to the deadline for his Original Animation Project and this particular edit idea that had come to mind during his anthropology lecture was nothing close to animation, but he wanted to make it so badly.

Harry sat and stared at his project, still waiting for his final touches, before he finally gave in and pulled up the files he knew he wanted to use for the edit.

He easily found the photo of himself that Nick had sent him just the other day. It was an older photo from that summer when Nick had visited Des Moines and proclaimed it “sufficiently quaint and not at all large enough to entertain him _”._ He and Gemma had taken him to their favorite bar with the worst cover band known to man that somehow had a weekly gig and had been a staple there for at least ten years. Nick had asked for a photo of the siblings, and Harry had agreed, but last minute turned to kiss Gemma’s cheek. It was a very cute photo, really, but it would also work perfectly with another photo Harry had taken of Louis the week before.

Well. Technically it wasn’t a photo he took specifically of Louis. It was another photo he’d taken and later when he was editing and cleaning it up, he’d found Louis in the background. Louis wasn’t perfectly in focus, but the photo of Harry was grainy as well, and he still thought he could make it work. He’d been looking for a reason to try his skills with the sharpening filter anyway, so this would be a great time to try it out.

The next time Harry looked at the clock, he realized over two hours had passed. How had that happened? Shit. He still needed to finish his project. Harry looked at the finished product on his screen, and he was quite happy with the way it had turned out. He hooked up his photo printer and hesitantly hit print. He wouldn’t print all of them, just this one. He was proud of it, was all. He wasn’t even sure what he’d do with it, but now that it had finished printing, he was glad he had. It really was very nice, and looked like an actual photo.

Harry sighed. Maybe, one day…

Shaking his head, Harry saved the file and reopened his class project. He needed to focus, not daydream. He could imagine the what ifs later when he was able to get to bed. After all, thoughts about Niall’s roommate really were only that: dreams of what could be if Harry ever got the guts to talk to him.

 

*~~***~~*

 

Harry was never going to be able to remember all the dates and names required for his History of Germany in the 20th Century course. The first of two midterms (whoever gave his professor the idea of spreading out midterms so there were two instead of just one was cruel) was coming and he had to somehow remember everything from the first World War. Just remembering everything associated with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, (much less the rest of the mess that resulted in the beginning of the war) was giving him a headache.

“So the pact between the Serbs and Russia meant that when Ferdinand was killed, the Serbs called on Russia who then geared up to fight Germany, who then activated the troops to attack France who called England…” Harry muttered as he studied his notes, not at all sure that what he had down was actually correct. Wait. It _was_ a Serb who had killed Ferdinand, wasn’t it? So was the impending equalizing attack from the Austro-Hungarian Empire what caused the Serbs to go running to Russia for backup? Shit, this was a mess.

“Don’t scrunch up your forehead so much, Harry. You’re young, don’t want wrinkles before your time.”

Harry blinked and looked up from his notes and books for the first time in what apparently was hours, judging by how dark it was outside.

“Shit, what time is it?” he asked, rubbing his eyes as he tried to adjust to looking at something other than his chicken scratch handwriting and small textbook font.

Niall sat down across from him with his cheese and protein box and whatever drink he’d ordered. “It’s almost seven. I just came for a quick food break before studying myself. Louis kicked me out of the room because he said I was throwing off his vibe and he has another ten pages to write tonight.”

Niall made a face that made Harry laugh, but his heart had also jumped into his throat. He’d learned a couple of weeks ago that the boy he’d seen at a party the first week of school, the gorgeous, beautiful, ethereal man, was Niall’s roommate, but he hadn’t gotten the guts to smoothly ask more about him yet.

“Louis’ your roommate?” Harry asked.

Niall laughed. “Yeah. He’s a slob, but a nice guy. We’ve roomed together the last couple years, so we have it down to an art now.”

Harry smiled. “That’s nice.” Harry bit his lip. How was he supposed to ask for more information about the guy without sounding suspicious? “Do you guys ever go out for Thirsty Thursday? Whenever I’m out I never see you guys.”

Perfect. Smooth. And that way, it sounds like he just wants them all to hang out, and if they were able to do that, then maybe Harry could make his move. Yes, that would be awesome.

“Nah. I have to work almost every Thursday and Louis has a lot of schoolwork, so if he goes out, it’s just to have a beer while he’s studying.”

“Ah, that explains it.”

Niall continued to pop grapes and cheese, along with whatever random shit Starbucks put into their snack boxes, into his mouth happily. Harry was still trying to figure out a good follow up question about Louis to get something, _anything,_ about him that he could work with, when Niall stood up.

“Alright, dude. I’ve gotta go meet Zayn at the library. Thanks for letting me take over part of your table for a bit! Good luck with studying.” And then he was off.

Harry sighed and looked back at his notes and then his stomach grumbled. He should probably get home and grab something substantial to eat. He could use a break anyway. Harry packed up his things and walked out into the fresh air that already had a bit of a chill to it despite it still being September.

Harry had let his crush last several weeks now, and that was long enough. Maybe he should give up on the guy with the perfect ass and incredible smile until the universe showed him there was actually hope of something happening at some point. He could make manips of other people, after all. It wasn’t that likely that Louis would keep showing up in the background of Harry’s photos, even though he already had on three separate occasions.

God. Harry ran a hand through his hair that was hanging loose today. As he pulled at the ends and made his resolution to give up on Louis, he heard a whistle coming from above. He paused outside of his dorm and looked up, only to see Louis hanging out of a window several floors up.

“Hey! Stanley! Don’t think I didn’t notice you took my favorite hoodie last time you came over!” he yelled, and Harry turned when he heard a loud laugh from behind him. There was a brunette with ruddy cheeks waving at Louis as he continued walking towards the Student Union. “I expect to have it back in my possession, freshly washed, by the weekend!” Louis shouted again before pulling himself back inside and shutting the window.

Harry looked up at the quickly darkening sky. “Was that supposed to be a sign not to give up?” Harry asked. “Alright, Universe. I’ll give it a little more time.” With a soft smile Harry couldn’t explain if someone asked him to, he let himself into his building and began to climb the stairs to his room.

 

*~~***~~*

 

Harry was feeling pretty damn giddy. It was the first week of classes, so far his professors seemed amazing, and his schedule meshed with Jonny’s in a way that allowed them to have plenty of alone time in their room while also giving them time to hang out. It was, so far, the perfect setup for everything.

Harry had also gotten some chances to take photos around campus, but he was most excited about the ones from the party last night. He’d gotten a new lens for his camera and had been messing with speeds and exposures using it while in the dark lighting. His brief look through them on the camera showed they had potential, so he couldn’t wait to see what he could do with them and really clean them up to look nice.

Harry dug out the USB and connected it to his laptop, getting comfortable on his bed. He had all day to have some fun with them, if he wanted, and he couldn’t wait to allow himself to sink into a project he really enjoyed.

Some of the photos had turned out as he had expected, not crisp enough on the subject, the exposure too long and the camera not held still enough, etc. However, he’d found a grouping of photos about halfway through where it looked like he’d finally found a good balance. Harry made note of the settings he’d used and tabbed to the next photo.

It was a great shot of the lights that Steve had just splurged for and put to use for the first time that night. They acted almost like lasers in the small, rundown house he shared with four others, and when mixed with the smoke from the fog machine, the effect was incredibly cool.

Harry dragged the file to his desktop and decided to get to work on that as his first edit. There were a few reflections he wasn’t fond of, thanks to the uncovered windows in the background, and Harry zoomed in to find a way to subtly get rid of them when he stopped and scrolled to the right a little.

Right beside the window was the guy. Harry couldn’t believe his luck; he hadn’t realized the gorgeous man had been at the party last night, and somehow Harry had gotten a photo of him clear as day. It was a miracle, really, considering the amount of smoke and the lights and everything in the room at that point, but there he was.

Harry had first seen him walking across the oval on Tuesday. The guy was wearing the tightest skinny jeans Harry had ever seen and a shirt that hugged his tiny little tummy in a way that made Harry want to bite it. Or his hips. Or his thighs. Okay, so maybe Harry wanted to mark him all over. It was a bit of an issue, but he was doing his best to work through it. Either way, Harry had dreamed of the way the boy’s hips moved ever since then.

In the photo, the guy was standing casually beside Steve wearing an awesome black shirt that said _The Future Is Now._ Steve was listening to whatever the guy was saying, and the guy had his hand on Steve’s hip, almost possessive. As Harry looked closer, he saw that the wall behind the gorgeous boy and Steve was almost entirely blue, and it would be the perfect opportunity for Harry to try some of his new Photoshop Premium options he’d finally purchased a few weeks ago.

Without even thinking, Harry began to erase Steve from the photo entirely. Sorry, Steve. Harry just really wanted beautiful boy to be the focal point of the photo.

Once Harry had gotten it so it looked like Steve had never been there, he realized how strange the guy looked standing there, with his partial hand out and awkwardly ending at his palm, surrounded only by a blank wall. Hmm. Harry really needed to replace Steve with someone else.

Harry opened his folder of portraits he’d been compiling over the summer to see if there was something that might work. As he scrolled through photos of his mom, Gemma, Nick, and some of his other friends from home, Harry suddenly came up on a photo of Harry with his mom. In it, Harry was looking at Anne fondly and leaning in towards her a bit due to a joke she’d made him laugh with. It was a bit bright, but should work perfectly.

Harry began to outline himself carefully and cropped himself from the original photo, bringing the cropped part in and scaling it to be the right proportion next to the beautiful man. The lighting wasn’t quite right, so Harry began to mess with settings to get it so it was just about perfect before making sure he was just how he wanted him, and cleaning up the edges.

Harry had gotten so enthralled with the detail work, he hadn’t realized the time and jumped when his phone rang. It was _Dancing Queen,_ so Harry knew it was time for his weekly call with his mom and answered without looking.

“Hey, Mom,” he said with a smile. Anne started talking and Harry tried to listen as he zoomed out a bit again so he could look at the almost finished product and was actually really impressed. It looked like that was how the photo was originally taken. Harry hit save so he didn’t accidentally lose everything he’d done so far and set his laptop down so he could get up and stretch.

“I see how it is. I call for the first time all week, and you don’t even pay any attention to me,” Anne teased.

Harry rolled his eyes. “You know how I get when I’m working on a project. It takes me a minute to pull out from it again. I’m with you now, go ahead with what you were saying.”

Anne went back to chattering about the cats and the new diner she and Robin had tried out. It was nice to hear her voice, even if it was Harry’s third year away from home. He would always miss his mom a little bit.

He was just summarizing how his week had gone when Jonny came in from work. Harry waved and walked out to the hall, sitting in the stairwell to finish his conversation with his mom so Jonny didn’t have to worry about how much noise he was making in the room. After only a few minutes, they had to end the call because she was catching an early movie with Robin, so Harry went back to the room.

He was happy to see his computer had already gone to idle, because he’d forgotten to close his screen and didn’t really want Jonny seeing what he’d been working on. He quickly took the laptop, closed all his open windows after being sure they were backed up, and then closed the computer.

“So? Ready to go meet up with Nick?” Harry asked. Jonny was messing around on his phone a bit, but he was out of his work clothes, so Harry figured he was ready.

“Yeah, dude. Let’s go.”

Harry grabbed his wallet and keys, but looked back at his laptop as he headed towards the door. He really was pretty proud of the edit so far, and honestly, it made the butterflies start up in his tummy a little thinking about the gorgeous man actually putting his hand on Harry’s hip, looking at him like that. Oh well. Maybe one day it could be a reality.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again for reading! If you liked it please leave a nice comment and kudos and I promise I'll respond to you, even if it takes me ages to get past my anxiety and do it.
> 
> You can find Laura's amazing art for the fic [here](http://harrehleh.tumblr.com/post/165970604406/all-i-want-is-to-be-free-by-lululawrence-for) and if you liked the fic I would love you forever if you would reblog the [fic post](http://lululawrence.tumblr.com/post/165797083478/all-i-want-is-to-be-free-by-lululawrence-with-art) and spread some love.
> 
> Interested in helping support charities with fanfic? If you are, I could write a fic for you! Check out the info [here on Tumblr](https://1dfanworksforcharity.tumblr.com/post/174494969280/1d-fanworks-for-charity-auctions-for-lululawrence).


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